I'd Even Be A Gryffindor
by Muggle Jane
Summary: Something's happened to Parvati, and Padma can't be still. Written for Karyn for the GGE2014


**A/N Own nothing but the plot. Written for Karyn for GGE2014!**

It was times like this that Padma desperately wished she and her twin sister had been Sorted into the same house, the way most twins were. She'd heard that Parvati had earned herself some sort of punishment for something. What she'd done and what the punishment was hadn't made it to the Ravenclaw common room yet, and that was the cause of Padma's distracted pacing. Round and round she went, pacing the outside of the room. Every time she went by a window, her eyes moved to look outside, but she was too distracted to take in the quiet beauty of the Black Lake, the Forbidden Forest.

It was late. Most everyone else had already gone up to the dorms, but Anthony was waiting with her, his sympathetic gaze following her. Every so often he would open the door just the slightest bit and look out to see if anyone was outside, particularly Luna or Parvati herself. Every time he would shut the door and shake his head silently, and Padma would look just a little more discouraged as she continued wearing her path around the outside of the circular room.

"You're making me dizzy," Anthony said, trying for a light tone, but his words coming out a little forced anyway.

"I'm sorry," Padma snapped, not sounding the least bit sorry. "I just can't sit still."

"You know someone will come for you the second they can." This wasn't the first time this had happened. The Gryffindors seemed quite determined to get into as much trouble as they possibly could, but Padma would even be a brash, impulsive Gryffindor if it meant knowing what was going on with her twin.

"I know. But that doesn't help me now."

Anthony watched her for another few minutes. "What are the ingredients of the Draught of Living Death?" he asked suddenly.

"What?" She shook her head. She didn't want to be thinking on schoolwork at a time like this.

"It'll help keep your mind off of things, and maybe you'll stop going in circles before you make me sick."

Padma drew to a stop in front of the tall window overlooking the Herbology greenhouses, trying to get her mind to concentrate. "Water." She thought for a moment. "Asphodel root, powdered."

"Right. Keep going."

It was hard to focus her mind, even on a potion that she'd learned and perfected when she was a sixth year. "Infusion of Wormwood. Valerian root." She sighed sharply, her hand coming up to grip the window casing as she stared out into the night. "Powdered Asphodel root."

"You said that already," came the mild rebuke.

She whirled to face him. "Why am I even doing this anyway, this is ridiculous."

"You stopped pacing for about a minute and a half." He was still watching her from his post by the door, and from the way his jaw was clenched, it looked like he was rapidly losing patience, despite the mild tone of his voice.

Her hands slid behind her back, clutching at the windowsill behind her in an effort to keep her from pacing around the room again. "I can't even concentrate on a sixth year potion!"

"What can you concentrate on? Charms? Transfiguration? What are the Five Principle Exceptions-"

She cut him off. "Nothing. Nothing is going to work. That's my sister!"

Anthony stared at her for a moment, his eyes unreadable. "Do you remember after our OWLs when all of the Ravenclaws in our year went swimming?" At her silent, incredulous stare, he continued. "And Morag just kept repeating to herself over and over that the squid wouldn't eat her, even though she swore that she wasn't afraid of it?"

She started smiling despite herself. "She only went in up to her ankles and then she said it was too cold and spent the rest of the day going over the questions from her Charms OWL."

"And you turned all those rocks into fish..."

She nodded at the memory. Looking back, life seemed so simple that year. Even with Umbridge, even with the late nights with homework and studying, she would go back to that year in a second if she could.

Padma jumped when the door suddenly opened. Anthony hadn't checked it in a little while, and both occupants of the common room were startled when the heavy door swung open. Luna stepped inside, a fresh bruise on her cheekbone and her hair a knotted mass around her head. "Parvati's in the Prefect's Bathroom," she announced in her usual cheerful fashion. "We couldn't get her to the Room of Requirement, it was too far away. She'll be fine, though, in just a little while. And Neville, Ginny, and Seamus are with her, they'll keep you both safe." She started through the room towards the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw and the stairs up to the dorm. "Oh!" she announced, stopping in the middle of the floor, her face brightening as though she'd just thought of something. "They're watching for you to try and get to her, but I've Confunded them. You should be all right. Just go slow and keep an eye out." She graced them with one of her beatific smiles before disappearing up the stairs.

Padma's heart raced in her chest. If they couldn't get Parvati up to the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor, she must be very badly hurt indeed. She rushed towards the door, her fingers closing tightly around her wand.

She paused by Anthony, and she could see the traces of sympathy in his face. "Thank you," she told him impulsively, reaching up to squeeze her free hand over his shoulder. He had helped, and he didn't have to.

He nodded. "I'll wait up, make sure you get back all right."

"Thank you," she said again, and then she was out in the castle, her wand held up before her.


End file.
